System and Method for Facilitating Network Based Commerce

ABSTRACT

Described herein is a commerce system and methods thereof, which comprises a remote server accessible via a network by client computers utilizing client software such as browsers for interfacing with the remote server. The server provides a commerce system that enables sellers to post information of items for sale to the server, and for buyers to view the seller-provided information and to transmit purchase requests or bids for listed items. The mechanism for negotiating a final selling price for items listed at the commerce system is facilitated through a number of pricing methods, including, a seller-fixed price process, an auction price-setting process, and buyer-proposed pricing.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

Benefit is claimed under 35 USC §119(e)(1), to the filing date of U.S.provisional patent application No. 60/595,596, entitled “System andMethod for Facilitating Network Based Commerce”, filed on Jul. 19, 2005.The aforementioned patent application is hereby incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to network based commerce systems. Networkbased commerce systems enable sellers to submit information about theirproducts and wares to a central server, thereby making it widelyaccessible to potential buyers communicating with the server. Theinformation submitted by the sellers is organized, stored and presentedto buyers as a database of listings, which may then be easily browsedand searched by the buyers. Network based commerce systems employmultiple price setting mechanisms for pricing items listed in thedatabase. One price setting mechanism is the seller-fixed price. Theseller-fixed price is published along with the item listing information,and a transaction may be automatically executed by a buyer agreeing topurchase the item for that price.

An auction price-setting mechanism is also commonly used forestablishing a market price for a listed item. A listed item being soldunder the auction model, would be published as such, and would includespecific auction details, such as minimum bid price, auction end date,etc. Bidders browsing auction items may submit bids, and compete againstother bidders that are bidding for the same item. Typically, at theauction end date, the highest bidder wins the item.

A third pricing-setting mechanism is the buyer-proposed price. Apotential buyer interested in a particular listed item would submit anoffer consisting of an amount he's willing to pay for the item. Theoffer is then communicated to the seller, which either accepts orrejects the offer. The seller generally has the option of immediatelyexecuting on the buyer proposed-offer, thereby immediately effectuatinga transaction between the buyer proposing the offer and the seller.

A particular challenging aspect in existing network-based commercesystems is the ability to employ two or more pricing mechanisms for asingle item. Different pricing methods appeal to different buyers and itwould be desirable to have them simultaneously available for the sameitems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Described herein is a commerce system and methods thereof, whichcomprises a remote server accessible via a network by client computersutilizing client software such as browsers for interfacing with theremote server. The server provides a commerce system that enablessellers to post information of items for sale, and for buyers to viewthe seller-provided information and to transmit purchase requests orbids for listed items. In the preferred embodiments the mechanism fornegotiating a final selling price for items listed at the commercesystem is facilitated through a number of pricing methods, including,seller-fixed price process, auction price-setting process, andbuyer-proposed pricing. Multiple novel features and aspects forfacilitating pricing of items are described herein with respect to thepreferred embodiments. Additional novel features and aspects will bereadily understood to one skilled in the relevant art based on thefollowing disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention enhances existing network based commerce systems.In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the commercesystem comprises a remote server accessible via a network (e.g. LAN,WAN, Internet and Intranet) by client computers utilizing clientsoftware such as browsers for interfacing with the remote server. Thecommerce system maintained at the remote server enables sellers to postlisting information about items for sale and for buyers to browse andsearch the listed items and to transmit purchase requests or bids fordesired items.

Reference is made to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/749,614,entitled “Method and system to publish a seller fixed price offer”,filed Dec. 30, 2003. Said application is hereby incorporated herein byreference in its entirety. The novel features and enhancements describedherein preferably augment, supplement and/or enhance the commercesystems comprehensively described in the aforementioned application.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention the mechanism fornegotiating a final sale price for items listed in the commerce systemis facilitated through a number of pricing methods, including, aseller-fixed price method, an auction price-setting method, and abuyer-proposed price method, all of which are herein described indetail. In addition, described herein are also mechanisms forsimultaneously enabling two alternative price-setting methods for asingle item.

Seller-Fixed Pricing Method

With the seller-fixed pricing method the seller indicates a desiredamount at which he's willing to sell the listed item. A sellerinterfaces with the commerce system via a client computer and submits alisting request to the commerce system. The seller then transmitscomplete item information, such as a description of the item, a picture,shipping costs, insurance costs and seller contact information all ofwhich are collected and stored in the commerce system. The commercesystem generates instructions offering the seller the option to sell theitem using an auction price-setting process and/or a fixed price-settingprocess. The seller transmits an indication that he wishes to sell theitem under the fixed-price setting process and indicates a fixed priceat which the item can be purchased. Preferably, the listing is onlyvalid for a specified time period (e.g. 7 days or 30 days), after whichthe listing expires and is no longer available for view by prospectivebuyers. Preferably, the system may enable the seller to modify thefixed-price for a pending listed item. The seller may choose to eitherincrease or decrease the price for the listed item. Typically, a sellermay choose to decrease the price for the item when he realizes that thecurrent fixed price will not generate a sale within the valid timeperiod for the listing.

A buyer locates the network-based commerce system by entering thecommerce system identifier (e.g., a URL) into the client program runningon the buyer's client computer, which transmits the commerce systemidentifier through the network. The buyer may then interact with thecommerce system through a user-friendly interface provided at thebuyer's client computer. The buyer navigates the listings of availableitems stored at the commerce system by utilizing browsing tools andsearch tools well known in the art. The buyer may view detailedinformation for each listed item provided by the seller for that item.The buyer may also contact the seller via a special form interface andmay submit questions to the seller. If a buyer decides to purchase theitem at the indicated seller-fixed price, he may submit a purchaserequest to the commerce server indicating his willingness to purchasethe item at the fixed price. The purchase request is legally binding onboth the buyer and the seller, and the commerce system facilitates thecompletion of a transaction between the buyer and seller for the sale ofthe listed item at the fixed price.

Auction Price-Setting Method

A seller may also choose to sell an item through a network-basedauction. A seller interfaces with the commerce system via a clientcomputer and submits a listing request to the commerce system andselects the option to sell the item through an auction process. Theseller also transmits all the relevant listing information, such as aitem description, picture, and seller contact information. The sellermay also optionally set a minimum bid amount and reserve amount for theitem. The minimum bid amount is the minimum bid amount allowed inbidding for the item. The reserve amount indicates that the seller isnot bound to sell the item to the winning bidder in the event theauction process ends with the winning bid being equal or lower than thereserve amount. Each auction has a set end-time, which is the date andtime (preferably in exact hours and minutes) the auction ends and awinning bid is determined from among the bids received prior to theending of the auction. The auction end-time is preferably set by theseller that chooses from among several auction times periods (e.g. 2days, 3 days or 7 days auctions). If no bid is received prior to the endtime, the listing expires and the seller may then choose to relist theitem and conduct a new auction.

A prospective buyer navigating the listings available at the commercesystem may view a listed item being sold through a pending auction. Thebuyer utilizing his client program may view all relevant auctioninformation, including the minimum bid amount and/or the current bidamount for the listed item. If a reserve price is specified for theitem, the commerce system may be configured to either disclose or not todisclose the reserve price to the prospective buyer. The disclosure ofthe reserve price may also be dependent on seller preference. Thecommerce system can accept bids from bidders by providing an electronicform associated with the listed item. The commerce system may preferablybe configured to accept a bid only if it surpasses the current bid forthe item. A bid submitted by a bidder is preferably not cancelable,except in special situations, such as when the bidder mistakenly entersan unreasonably high bid price, or when the seller subsequently changesthe item information.

All bids submitted by bidders are preferably proxy bids. With a proxybid the bidder indicates the highest price he is willing to pay for theitem. The commerce system then acts as a proxy and bids on behalf of theproxy bidder a bid amount that is an increment over the current bid. Afirst received proxy bid in an auction, would cause the new current bidprice to be set at an increment above the minimum bid indicated by theseller. If no minimum bid is indicated then the new current bid is setat an increment above 0. The increment may either be a dollar amount(e.g. $.50), or may be a percentage increase over the previous currentbid or minimum bid amount. A subsequent bidder enters a proxy bid, andthe system sets the new current bid on behalf of the second bidder at anincrement above the previous current bid. The system then automaticallyconducts competitive bidding among the first and second bidder, andfinally sets the current bid on behalf of the bidder with the higherproxy bid, at an increment above the lower proxy bid. In similar fashionmultiple proxy bids for an item may be received, with the current bidalways being set on behalf of the highest proxy bidder at an incrementabove the second highest proxy bid. The proxy bid amount of each biddermay or may not be disclosed to the seller and/or other bidders.

At the auction end-date, the highest current bid wins the item. Thesystem determines the winning bidder and sends electronic notificationto the seller and the highest bidder, and facilitates buyer/sellercommunication in order to complete the transaction. Both the seller andthe highest bidder are legally bound to complete the transaction.

Hybrid Pricing Method Listings

The commerce system may also allow sellers to list items under both ofthe above pricing methods, that is, the auction price-setting method andthe seller-fixed pricing method. The seller indicates to the commercesystem his desire to sell the item through both a seller fixed price andan auction price-setting process. The item is auctioned in the samefashion as described above. However, prior to the auction end-date abuyer may select to terminate the auction process early and send apurchase request to the commerce system to purchase the item at theseller fixed-price. The commerce system may be configured to allow theavailability for purchasing the item at the fixed price even when one ormore bids have already been received for the auction process, so long asthe auction is still pending. Alternatively under a different embodimentof the hybrid method, the system may automatically remove thefixed-price purchase option once a first bid is received in the auction.

Buyer-Proposed Offer Pricing Method

The commerce system may also provide a third pricing method for a listeditem. The buyer-proposed price method is initiated by a buyer (i.e. aprospective buyer), which may communicate with the commerce system andindicate the amount he's willing to pay for a listed item. Thebuyer-proposed price method may be available for all the items listed atthe commerce system, including items that are associated with aseller-fixed price and items that are being auctioned through an auctionprice-setting process. Preferably, a seller may also list an item thatneither includes a seller-fixed price and nor is it being sold throughan auction, but is being listed, simply to allow prospective buyers tosubmit proposed offers. According to this method, a buyer indicates adesire to purchase a listed item at a proposed price, therebynegotiating with the seller to buy the item.

The commerce system receives the buyer-proposed offer, and notifies theseller about the offer (e.g., via email, instant messaging, and/or anupdate of listing information that is available to the seller when heviews his listed items).

When the seller receives the notification of the buyer-proposed offerprice, the seller may either accept or reject offer. If the selleraccepts the proposed price, the seller transmits an indication ofacceptance of the offer to the commerce system. If the seller rejectsthe offer, no action on his part is required, however he may optionallytransmit an indication that he rejects the offer, thereby causing thebuyer to possibly reconsider his/her proposed price, which may lead to ahigher buyer-proposed offer price.

The buyer-proposed offer is preferably cancelable at any time by thebuyer prior to acceptance of the offer by the seller. Preferably, eachbuyer-proposed offer is associated with an expiration date, which is thedate and time the offer automatically expires without any actionrequired by the buyer submitting the offer. The expiration date may beavailable for view by the seller, or alternatively the expiration dateis hidden from the seller. If known to the seller, the system mayproactively notify the seller about buyer-proposed offers that were notread and are about to expire.

Multiple buyer-proposed offers may be received by the commerce systemfor a listed item all of which are sent or displayed to the seller. Whena seller accepts a proposed offer price of a buyer it legally binds boththe seller and the buyer to consummate a sale of the item at thebuyer-proposed price.

The commerce system may be configured to provide a buyer with an optionto submit multiple proposed offer prices to multiple similar listingsand create a conditional offer group. The buyer may submit a singleproposed price to all items in the group or may indicate differentprices for each item in the group. Each proposed offer is a conditionaloffer, which is conditioned on the non-execution of another offer in thegroup. When a seller for one of the items in the group accepts the offerfor that item, then all other offers in the group are automaticallycancelled. This ensures the buyer that even if he submits multipleoffers for multiple items in the group only one offer in the group isexecutable by a seller. The commerce system facilitates the grouping ofbuyer offers through a user-friendly interface. When a buyer submits aproposed offer price for an item, he is first prompted with the optionof creating a new group with which the offer may be associated with, orhe may associate the offer for the item with a previously created group.Under an alternative embodiment the buyer is prompted with a list ofpreviously submitted and still valid offers, and he may then select(e.g. by checking a box near a listing of the list of previous offers)all the previous offers he wishes to be contingent with the currentlysubmitted offer, thus the execution of one offer will cause theautomatic cancellation of the other offers.

As indicated above a buyer may submit a proposed offer for an item thatis associated with a pending auction. The option for submitting abuyer-proposed offer is preferably available as long as the auction ispending, regardless of whether or not one or more bids have beenreceived for the item. In this embodiment, when a seller executes thebuyer's offer, the auction is automatically terminated and the buyerhaving submitted the offer is the legally bound buyer for the item atthe specified offer price. Preferably, the seller may choose which buyerto select as the winning buyer for the item. The seller may thuspossibly select a lower offer by another buyer, if he so desires.

In another embodiment when the seller accepts a buyer-proposed offerprice it will not necessarily guarantee that buyer as the winner of theitem. Rather the system may first mesh the accepted buyer-proposed offerwith the pending auction price-setting process. The system will firstdetermine whether or not the highest proxy bid submitted in the auctionprocess is higher than the seller accepted buyer-proposed offer. If thehighest proxy bid in the auction process is lower then the acceptedbuyer-proposed offer, then the highest buyer-proposed offer is thewinning buyer. However, if the highest proxy bid is higher then theaccepted buyer-proposed offer, then the system will automatically setthe winning bid for the highest proxy bidder at an increment above theaccepted buyer-proposed offer, and the highest proxy bidder will beselected as the winning bidder and will be bound to purchase the item atthe newly set winning bid.

For example, if a highest proxy bidder in the auction process hassubmitted a proxy bid of $100 for a particular item, and the current bidhas been determined by the commerce system at $50, which is an incrementabove a $45 bid of the second highest proxy bid. Thereafter, for thesame item the system also receives a buyer-proposed offer of $80, andsends the offer information to the seller. The seller accepts the offerand sends an indication of acceptance to the commerce system. The systemthen considers the $80 buyer-proposed offer against the $100 highestproxy bid. The system then chooses the highest proxy bidder as thewinning bidder and sets the winning bid price at $85.

Preferably, a proxy bidder may select at the time he submits his bid (orat any time thereafter as long as the bid is valid and the listing isstill pending), the option of having his proxy bid considered against abuyer proposed offer in the event the seller accepts the buyer proposedoffer. Alternatively, all proxy bids are configured by the commercesystem to be considered against a buyer-proposed offer if the sellerexecutes such offer.

In a further alternative embodiment, when a buyer-proposed offer issubmitted by a buyer for an item that is being sold via an auctionprice-setting process, the system will not automatically execute on theoffer upon acceptance of the offer by the seller. According to thisapproach, whenever a seller accepts a buyer-proposed offer for aparticular item, an indication of the seller's acceptance is notimmediately communicated to the bidder. Instead, the offer is comparedto each of the proxy bids received for the item in the auction process.Each bidder that submitted a proxy bid that is higher than the acceptedbuyer-proposed offer is contacted and receives an option of submitting abuyer-proposed offer of his own within a limited timeframe. At the endof this limited timeframe, the buyer-proposed offers submitted by thesebidders and the offer the seller had already accepted, are ranked andthe highest offer wins the item (alternatively, the seller may choosewhich, if any, of the newly submitted offers to accept, but willnecessarily be required to accept one offer from among the newlysubmitted offers and the previously accepted offer). The winning buyer(or selected buyer) is then contacted and a complete transaction isfacilitated.

According to this embodiment, the first buyer-proposed offer (that wasaccepted by the seller and thereby triggered the process of notifyingthe proxy bidders in the auction process), will preferably not becancelable by the buyer submitting that offer, although he might not endup winning the item in the event his offer is surpassed by other offerssubmitted within the limited timeframe. The proxy-bidders thatsubsequently submit offers within the limited timeframe in order tocompete with the first buyer-proposed offer may preferably be allowed tocancel their offers within the limited timeframe period.

A buyer-proposed offer may be explicitly accepted or rejected by theseller, or alternatively the seller may simply ignore the offer. Asnoted above, the buyer may manually cancel the offer at any time, or mayset an expiration date for the offer to expire automatically. In oneembodiment, an offer which has been not been accepted by the seller, andhas not been cancelled by the buyer, may preferably be automaticallyconverted into a proxy bid and may be considered in the simultaneouslypending auction process. Under such configuration a buyer-proposed offerthat is still pending at the auction end-time, will automatically beconverted to a proxy bid and will be considered against the other proxybids in the auction process. The buyer may preferably select or deselectthe option of configuring the offer as being convertible into a proxybid.

The commerce system may provide the seller with an auto-responsefeature, for automatically responding to buyer-proposed offers. Theseller's auto-response may include the following sub-features. (a) Theseller may indicate a minimum buyer-proposed offer that it willconsider. Offers that are below this minimum will automatically berejected by the system on behalf of the seller. (b) The seller mayindicate a price at which the commerce will automatically accept theoffer on behalf of the seller. This feature may include a “wait period”,prior to the system's acknowledgment of an acceptance of the offer. The“wait-period” may be optional, and its duration may be set by theseller. If subsequent buyer-proposed offers are received during the waitperiod, the system may be configured to automatically restart the waitperiod, starting from the receipt of the latest buyer-proposed offer.

Sniping Prevention Methods

Network based auction systems often suffer from a phenomenon commonlyreferred to as “sniping bids”. Sniping bids are last-minute bids thatare intended to outbid offline users who cannot raise their proxy bidand therefore lose the win they could otherwise have. The followingmethods fight sniping by creating an incentive for buyers to bid earlyon. Each of these methods may be used alone or together with othermethods.

Method 1: Convertible Proxy Bid. According to this method, a bidder thathas submitted a proxy bid to the auction process for a particular itemmay be provided a feature for attaching “conversion conditions” to hisproxy bid. When these conditions are met the proxy bid willautomatically be converted into a buyer-proposed offer and would behandled by the commerce system much in the same way as the systemhandles other buyer-proposed offers as described above.

The conditions attached by the bidder may include the following: (1) acertain time period before the auction ends; (2) the highest bid hasreached a certain threshold (i.e. the highest current bid in the auctionprocess has surpassed a threshold bid set by the bidder). When any (orall) of these conditions are met the commerce system will automaticallyconvert the proxy bid to a buyer-proposed offer equal to the proxy bidprice. The commerce will then proceed with one of the methods previouslydescribed for communicating and processing such buyer proposed offers.If the offer is rejected or a response is not received within a giventime period, the offer may be converted back to a proxy bid, and willproceed under the auction process. Preferably, a bidder using thisconversion feature may not cancel the offer, even when it is under thebuyer-proposed offer status.

Method 2: Late Bidder Charge. The idea behind this method is to makelate bidding/winning more expensive and thereby degrade thecompetitiveness of the late bidder. This encourages the bidder to bidearly on, and penalizes “snipers”.

Proxy bids that are submitted within a specified time period prior tothe end of the auction will be subject to a special charge. This chargewill generally not be considered for comparison with the other proxybids but is rather treated as an additionally applied fee.

The amount charged may be determined by the following methods: (1) fixedFee: a “late bidding fee”, which applies to all bids submitted within apredefined time period prior to the auction end time; (2) sliding Fee: a“late bidding fee”, which increases as the submittal time of the bid iscloser to the auction end time.

The Late Bidder Charge may be collected for submitting a late bid(regardless of whether the bid will win or not), or may be charged onlyif the bids ultimately wins the auction.

The amount accrued from Late Bidder Charges may be used in any of thefollowing ways: (1) Used to improve the highest early bid: the chargescollected are added to the proxy bid of the bidder that had the highestearly bid (an early bid is such which was submitted early enough and isnot subject to Late Bidder Charges). This is practical only when LateBidder Charges are collected for submitting a late bid, even if the LateBidder does not actually win the auction. When sniping is heavily used(i.e. many late bids are submitted), the highest early bidder gets a bigadvantage over the late bidder. (2) It may be transferred to the highestearly bidder as “sniping compensation”—he/she lost the auction, but atleast earned some money. (3) Collected by the auction system. (4)Transferred to the seller.

Method 3: Random Auction End Time. This method makes sniping difficultbecause the end time of the auction is non-deterministic. The auctionsystem randomizes the end-time within a predefined window, which is wideenough to defeat the sniping effect.

Method 4: Late Bidder Random Delay of Bid Submittal. This method issimilar to the Random Auction End Time, but presents thenon-deterministic challenge only to the late bidders (early bidders seea deterministic situation). Each late bid (such which is submittedwithin a predefined time period prior to the auction end time) isassigned a random delay in submitting the bid to the commerce system.The auction system randomizes this delay, and the delay may or may notbe presented to the bidder and/or the other participants of the auction.The delay may be longer than the time left for the auction. Therefore,the sniper risks a situation in which his bid will not be considered atall.

Method 5: Idle Auction Early Termination. This method encourages biddersto bid early on in order not to lose the chance to bid. The idea is thatif the auction is “idle” for a long period of time (i.e. no new bids aresubmitted for a long time, or the highest bid was not significantlyraised for a long time), the auction system terminates the auction.There may be two kinds of termination: (1) Abort: the auction iswithdrawn and no winner is announced. (2) Accept: the highest bidder atthe time the auction is terminated is announced the winner.

Method 6: Limited Proxy Bidding. With this method every bid receivedwithin a certain time period prior to the end-date of the auction willnot be considered as a proxy bid, but will be considered as an actualbid and will be set as the current bid price. For example, the systemmay be configured such that at 12 hours prior to the end date of theauction proxy bidding will be disabled and all newly entered bidsreceived will be considered as actual bids. This method encourages earlybidding because, in order to win, late bidders will have to spend aconsiderable amount of time in order to follow the developments in theauction and upgrade their bids manually.

Disclaimers

The present invention has been described in its preferred embodimentsand the various novelty aspects of the present invention may be readilyappreciated. Various modifications to the preferred embodiments areenvisioned, which may include one or more of the novelty aspectsdescribed herein, without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

Appended to this specification are one or more claims, which includeboth independent claims and dependent claims. Each dependent claimrefers to a previous claim, and should be construed to incorporate byreference all the limitations of the previous claim to which it refers.Further, each dependent claim of the present application should beconstrued and attributed meaning as having at least one additionallimitation or element not present in the claim to which it refers. Inother words, the claim to which each dependent claim refers is to beconstrued and attributed meaning as being broader than such dependentclaim.

1. A method for facilitating network based commerce, the methodcomprising: providing a commerce system coupled to the network, thecommerce system being accessible through the network by a plurality ofsellers and buyers; receiving at the commerce system a first iteminformation from a first seller, the first item information including adescription of a first item; receiving at the commerce system a seconditem information from a second seller, the second item informationincluding a description of a second item; receiving at the commercesystem a first buyer-proposed offer from a buyer for the first item, asecond buyer-proposed offer from the buyer for the second item and anindication from the buyer to automatically cancel one of the first andsecond offers in the event the other one of the first and second offersis accepted; and receiving at the commerce system from the first selleran indication of acceptance of the first buyer-proposed offer for thefirst item and automatically canceling by the commerce system the secondbuyer-proposed offer.
 2. A method for facilitating network basedcommerce, the method comprising: providing a commerce system coupled tothe network, the commerce system being accessible through the network bya plurality of sellers and buyers; receiving at the commerce system iteminformation from a seller, the item information including a descriptionof an item; accepting proxy bids for the item from one or more buyers,each proxy bid submitted to an auction process facilitated at thecommerce system, wherein the auction process is associated with acertain end time and is configured to set a highest actual bid on behalfof a highest proxy bid at an increment above a next highest proxy bid;receiving at the commerce system a buyer-proposed offer for the item;receiving at the commerce system from the seller an indication ofacceptance of the buyer-proposed offer; and if the highest proxy bid ishigher than a price associated with the buyer-proposed offer, thendetermining the highest proxy bid as the winning bid and setting thefinal price at an increment above the price associated with thebuyer-proposed offer, otherwise, determining the buyer proposed offer asthe winning bid.